Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology for Architecture, Engineering and Construction

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Choosing a workstation for BIM? How to future-proof your investment

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Published: 31 January 2018

With so many powerful new technologies coming online, choosing a workstation for design and engineering is no longer the straightforward decision it used to be. Greg Corke explores several ways to help future-proof your investment

Might you be relying on VR in a few years?

I’ve been writing about workstations for 20 years now and this is by far the most exciting time I can remember. That’s not because the CPUs and GPUs are more powerful than ever (which they are, of course), but because the software that designers, engineers and architects use is changing dramatically.

It used to be all about CAD or BIM and a little bit of rendering. Now, we are starting to see core design workflows augmented with technologies like game engine viz, Virtual Reality (VR), GPU rendering, generative design and reality modelling.

This presents a big challenge when buying a new workstation. It was always a good bet that a machine with a high-frequency quad core processor, mid-range pro graphics card, 256GB SSD, 2TB HDD and 32GB of memory would serve you now and well into the future. After all, CAD/BIM software and its hardware requirements have not changed dramatically for many years, and this should remain the case for some time.

But with so many new technologies coming online, almost all of which demand a much faster workstation, it’s now a lot harder to choose a machine that you know will be able to support your changing workflows in years to come. There are a few options here.

The first is to buy a workstation that is faster than you currently need. A GPU that is ‘VR Ready’ or a CPU that has more cores, for example, would give you some built-in headroom – and the flexibility to try out new tech. However, getting budget approved may be hard, particularly when firms have long-held views on how much a CAD/BIM workstation ‘should’ cost.

The second is to make sure the workstation is upgradeable. This could mean checking that there are spare DIMM slots available to increase RAM when datasets get more complex or the number of applications you use or their memory footprint increases. Or, that the workstation chassis and power supply can accommodate a more powerful graphics card — or multiples thereof for GPU rendering or some viz and VR applications.

GPU, memory and storage upgrades are very easy to do, even for novice users. CPU upgrades, on the other hand, are harder and require more specialist knowledge. In some cases, depending on your motherboard, the additional benefits are also very small.

Upgrades do not have to be made inside the machine. With new I/O standards like Thunderbolt 3, a tiny desktop workstation or mobile workstation with limited expansion, can be easily upgraded with fast external storage. More recently, external GPUs can also be added. Nvidia’s Quadro eGPU solution, for example, can give users access to a powerful ‘VR Ready’ professional desktop GPU. Importantly, the Windows OS can see this as the primary GPU, so it can be used for game engine viz or VR and not just as a co-processor for GPU rendering or processing reality models.

There’s also a third option, which is to invest in a workstation that can handle 95% of your workload, then offload the other 5% to the cloud – or to a shared local resource. Why buy an expensive estate car for the city when you can instead hire a roof rack for occasional holidays away? With this approach, you can reduce your capital investment and pay for additional CPU or GPU power on demand.

The obvious candidate for this ‘pay as you go’ approach is rendering, which may only be needed at certain times in the design process. However, it could also extend to virtual desktop services from companies like Frame, which allow you to run powerful 3D apps in a web browser. This is not a viable solution for pro VR, however, as the GPU needs to be local.

Conclusion

It’s very hard to predict how your design workflow is going to change over the life of your workstation but, with so many new technologies coming online, it could certainly look very different in the next few years. With this in mind, it’s never been more important to be prepared. Kitting out every member of your design team with an ultra high-end workstation is unrealistic, but if you don’t have a solid plan in place and the flexibility to adapt then you could get left behind.

This article is part of an AEC Magazine workstation special report. To read articles and reviews in this report click on the links below.